Nidhogg – En garde with a retro-style fencing adventure

Most video games load you up with a whole arsenal of weapons, making you capable of taking down a whole army single-handedly… if you’ve got the skills. This game equips you with a sword. Are you ready to take on that army now?

Nidhogg sounds like the noise you might make when you clear your throat, but it’s actually an award-winning fencing game with a retro 8-bit style which will completely turn some players off while thrilling others to their core. Incidentally, Nidhogg is a dragon in Norse mythology who gnaws at a root of the World Tree. Now you can go to sleep tonight with the knowledge that you learned something new today.

The side-scrolling game offers a wide variety of features, including four arenas (Castle, Wilds, Mines, and Clouds) and numerous ways to play:

Single Player Arcade Mode
Practice and tune your fighting strategies against an array of AI personalities. Play a speedrun for bragging rights on the leaderboards!

2 Player Local-Multiplayer
The best mode in Nidhogg! Playing next to someone is the most fun way to enjoy this game, but fair warning, things might get a little crazy!

Tournament Mode
Host the dopest houseparty on your block, with the 3 to 8 person local-multiplayer tournament mode in Nidhogg. Massive amounts of spectator excitement is guaranteed to occur.

Also available are numerous options that let you add a few twists to the gameplay, including Spine Swords, Slow Mode, Trails, Boomerang Swords, Time Limit, No swords, no Throws, Throws only, Divekicks, Baby Mode, Low gravity, Sudden Death Only, Skippy Mode, and Turbo Mode.

Basically, if you get bored with this game, you’re doing something wrong.

Nidhogg is available on Steam for $14.99 or get the 2-pack for $26.99.

Marty Shaw is a freelance writer who currently calls Texas his home. When he’s not trying to figure out a creative way to hitch a ride in the TARDIS, he imagines what it would be like to live through a zombie apocalypse as an uncool version of Daryl Dixon.